<p>the title says it all. i graduated last may and will answer most anything. however, since im busy i would appreciate it if you searched last years thread (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=172014[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=172014</a>) before posting. </p>
<p>thanks in advance! and happy deciding, class of 2011!</p>
<p>I am an international freshman here at bucknell, studying electrical engineering. Although I am sure I don't know as much as eric, I'll try to answer questions if you have them. </p>
<p>(By the way, the ericatbucknell thread last year helped me when I was deciding)</p>
<p>satn87,</p>
<p>How difficult and time consuming is your engineering coursework?</p>
<p>Bucknell is a good place for engineering and you will be studying noticeably more than others. That being said, engineering is naturally more work but you will have time to do other things. The first semester of engineering usually starts off with Calculus 1 (which is easy but with regular homeworks every week), Physics 211 (1 hand-in homework, 2 online quizzes, and a quiz in class on fridays each week), ENGR 100 and a social science/or english course. ENGR 100 starts off with a seminar, introducing you to the major engr. disciplines and then you go on to take 3 sub-courses in 3 engr. fields of your choosing. I took elec., mech., and civil engineering courses. this introduces you to the type of engr. major you maybe interested in and the course finishes with a project (with written report) on all 3 sub-courses and a final paper on engr. ethics. it is fun, but is a lot of work with regular meetings among group members, desgning your project, and writing the report. The experience does help a lot when you are choosing your major. Engineers do that at the end of their first semester. </p>
<p>PHYS 211 is fun and very-well taught. the assignments and quizzes are very regular, so you have to keep on top of that. </p>
<p>Engineering is a lot of work but that's just the nature of the subject. if it wasn't a lot of work, it wouldn't be worth studying it. YOU WILL DEFINITELY HAVE FREE TIME TO DO OTHER STUFF, HOWEVER.</p>
<p>Is the drinking/partying at Bucknell as prevalent as I've heard? I'm not much of a partier myself, so will it be difficult to socialize/make friends?</p>
<p>Hi, ericatbucknell and satn87,</p>
<p>I'll be freshman at Bucknell next year, also an Electrical Engineering major :)</p>
<p>I have some questions for you:</p>
<p>I know the Engineering courses are very demanding, so how should I prepare myself to not get overwhelmed in college? I'm an international student so I don't think the natural science courses at US high schools were similar to ours. I know I only have some summer months left, but what would you suggest as a good preparation?</p>
<p>Another question:
Did either of you participate in the Residential College program? </p>
<p>If yes, is living in such a dorm cool? Cooler than you expected? Can you major in Engineering while live in ... like... the Arts res College? </p>
<p>If not - why not? Do you have to commit yourself in the Res college during the 4 years?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot :D I'm so so excited!!! Looking forward to August!</p>
<p>How hard is it to get into the Presidential Fellows program? When does that happen and what is involved.</p>
<p>ilmor- I dont drink myself or party too much at all and i have quite a lot of friends. You just meet people here now and again. Most are very friendly and so its easy to make friends. if you do ENGR.100, you'll be working in 3 different groups and you might make some friends there. also, when you eat in the dining hall, the people you eat with will probably be your friends as well. And there's also the new student orientation as well. the drinking/partying scene is there in certain places and is easily avoidable if you so choose. The main thing here is that people are naturally very friendly and so finding friends isnt hard at all.</p>
<p>trangham & science courses - the engineering courses for your first semester wont be too hard at all. Calculus 1 is rather easy: you'll be doing functions (log, exponential, polynomials, trig.), differentiation and linear approximation, some integration and a whole lot of limits. Its annoying at times, but honestly not hard. </p>
<p>I described ENGR 100 above. Its a lot of work but fun too, and not really hard. Challenging perhaps. since you take 3 sub-courses (not at the same time,but one after the other) you'll have hwork from those, a test at the end of each sub-course and a project with report to be handed in for each course. The end of ENGR 100 is an ethics paper .</p>
<p>PHYS 211 is a great course and very well-organized. You'll start with vectors and forces, work and energy, momentum, and go on to thermodynamics and relativity and gravity. I dont know what syllabus you studied under, but I did the British A-levels and they were very good preparation and more than enough. I wouldn't worry too much about the science courses. The professors are very good and PHYs 211 is very well explained.</p>
<p>trangham and res college - i belong to the SoTech res college and yes, you can belong to arts and do Elec. engr. major. if you choose a res college, then your fourth course for the semester will be a res college course. this will fulfill one of your social science/humanities requrements & maybe a writing requirement.</p>
<p>Living in a res college isnt too different than living in any other dorm (for me at least). you do some trips and activities together , meet like minded people, maybe. some of the trips are fun. i liked the experience alright. </p>
<p>You are only in your res college for the first year and you do your trips and activities in the first semester. the res college course is also taken in the first semester. it concludes with a project.</p>
<p>zimmer07- i don't really know too much about the presidential fellows program, so i found this link in the bucknell website. maybe that'll help:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bucknell.edu/x1201.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.bucknell.edu/x1201.xml</a></p>
<p>there's an email address there if you want to contact someone for more info.</p>
<p>in your opinion do you think bucknell was more competitive this year than last?</p>
<p>ah, at this stage that's really a question only admissions can answer. the school usually releases a profile of the class of 2010/2011 etc. & that's where i get my data from. they haven't done that yet for the class of 2011 since its still early days.</p>
<p>i think all colleges are generally receiving more applications and getting more competitive (since they have more to choose from, i guess). that was the trend when i applied. i know that bucknell received a record 9021 applications for the class of 2010. so it must have been more competitive that the class of 2009. </p>
<p>A bit more about 2010: acceptance rate = 2985/9021 * 100 = 33%.
Admitted students : SAT math - 650-740 (mid 50%)
SAT verbal - 620-720 (mid 50%)
ACT - 29-32 (mid 50%)</p>
<p>This is all straight from the bucknell website, by the way. they'll probably release new information after the may 1 decision-making deadline passes and their own information is more complete.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the answer, satn87!</p>
<p>When my info packet arrives in May I think I'll have more to ask. :D</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies, satn87.</p>
<p>Quick question - Is cable TV available in the freshman dorms?</p>
<p>I have a small question: How's the food at Bucknell?</p>
<p>ilmor - you can subscribe to cable TV for your dorm through a bucknell program titled BUTV. you can get upto 65 channels, i think. Anyway, lots of freshmen have their own TVs in their dorms and watch movies, games, etc. You can read more about BUTV in this link:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bucknell.edu/x9611.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.bucknell.edu/x9611.xml</a></p>
<p>trangham - the food at bucknell is very good. the main eating place is Bostwick dining hall. Let's see..... as you go into Bostwick, to your right is the vegetarian counter, where there are usually 4 dishes. beside that is the pizza place, with 4 kinds of pizza. beside that are two kinds of pasta, usually. then you have a very extensive salad bar. if you go straight ahead, there is the grill and a place where you have fries, fried fish, fried onion rings, grilled cheese sandwiches, fried mushrooms sometimes. more straight ahead, and you have 3 kinds of soups. beside that, a place with jalapenos and chili. then there are 2 kinds of fried rice, or 2 kinds of noodles on different days. For your 'main course', there is a counter off to the side where you get everything from baked fish, barbecued chicken, tuna casserole, beef stir fry, baked chicken, turkey, chicken nuggets, and vegetables. there are usually 5 dishes per day. you get beef and chicken stew on some days too. then there is the official stir fry counter and egg counter. there is also a good selection of cakes, biscuits, pies, and soda, juice dispensers and ice-cream. and 18 kinds of cereal i think. the food is usually good and satisfying. For breakfast time, you'll have scrambled eggs and hash browns and pancakes. maybe peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. there is healthy supply of bread and buns for hotdogs as well. </p>
<p>there are a few other places to eat as well. there is a restaurant of sorts called the Bison, which is very popular. there is the 'terrace room' but i've never been there yet. usually the main cafe, Bostwick, is enough. Bostwick is open from 6 am to 12 midnight everyday.</p>
<p>you get milk, tea, coffee as well.</p>
<p>That was such a specific answer, satn87! Thanks a lot. I was drooling over my keyboard (j/k).</p>